No matter how much I love watching an anime series, there are some occasions when you want to watch something with a good plot but doesn’t last for 12+ episodes. Sometimes you just want to watch something for two ours and have the whole thing wrapped up. This is why I love watching movies. Two hours or so and your done. So with this review I decided to do an anime review for an animated movie that simply suffered from not enough run-time. But why not do a review for a movie? I have not done one of those yet and you do not have to worry about watching (or rewatching) 12+ episodes of a show. You just have to watch it once and you are done!!

So here is my 9th anime review, and my first for an animated movie!! Here is my review for the animated move: Aki no Kanade.

Okay now where do I start? Aki no Kanade surrounds Aki Miyagawa a thirty something (that’s just what I’m assuming because it states she’s been in Tokyo for 15 years after her high school graduation) who moved to Tokyo after her high school graduation to pursue professional taiko drummer. If you do not know what a taiko drum is it, is looks like this:

And they come in many different sizes. The different sizes allow for them to make different sounds, which actually sounds cool. I do not know how accurate the drums sounded in the movie but it sounded pretty cool.

Anyway, so Aki left home to pursue professional drumming, despite her father not supporting her playing. One day she gets a call from her old drumming teacher, a young man who was still in college when he taught her, who asks her to come and help him teach some people to drum for an upcoming festival. A festival that had not been held for many years. Aki agrees and we are sent into a very long flashback where we learn how Aki got involved with the taiko drum, how Aki had tried herself to get the festival to come back, and the story of Aki starting a drumming club at her school.

The flashback takes up most of our story. The rest of it is spent with Aki visiting her family and eventually meeting up with the people she will be teaching. It’s a very simple story, but one that definitely keeps you interested.

Our characters are pretty good, considering the amount of time they have to develop personalities. Aki is a pretty good main character who you can tell has been through a lot while trying to pursue a career in professional taiko drumming. I mean she is kind of dense in some senses, but other than that she does go through a bit of character development throughout the movie. Although it is not discussed in great detail, it is also mentioned that Aki’s father did not support her leaving. This is something that I think some people can really relate to. It is also briefly mentioned that Aki has to work a second job to make ends meet, which I think shows that although you should pursue your dreams it maybe difficult along the way.

The other character we unfortunately do not get to really know that well. There’s Aki’s family, her friends from school, the teacher who taught her how to play the drums, and some people that she works with. We learn a little bit about her family and the other characters, but most of the story is spent developing Aki’s character. They were all still fun to watch and get to know in the short time that we could.

The animation for this movie was really well done. Even the scenery was really well done. A lot of thought was definitely put into this movie. The effects that the lanterns had at the festival were also really cool in my opinion. The soundtrack was kind of generic. There was not a whole lot to it. Most of it was the sounds that the drummers were playing themselves. It was a cool sound though and I really enjoyed it. It was different having our character perform the actual soundtrack themselves.

Overall, I really did enjoy this movie. It had a plot that kept me interested the whole time and I’m happy that I stumbled upon it. The only flaw that I had with the whole movie was its run time. The movie is only 25 minutes long. They tried to pack a whole, well thought out story in under half an hour. This only allowed us to get to know Aki and see her character develop just a little bit. Throw in some backstory and there’s your movie. We did not get to go into the other characters or catch up with Aki’s childhood friends. And what happened to Naoto’s hair? When I started to watch it I thought maybe it was split up or something, but no. It was good for the amount of time it was given. It gave us a little background on something in Japanese culture that I had been unaware of before.

So I will have to award Aki no Kanade with aC. It had a lot of flaws that, unfortuntely made me rank it with an avergage ranking. The story is not for everyone and although the soundtrack is different, it is pretty generic. We only get to know one character very well and the short running time makes the story feel kind of rushed. The animation was very well done though so it got some bonus points for that.

Well that’s all that I have for now!! What do you guys think? Have you watched this? Do you want to? What’s your opinion on it? Start a conversation in the comments down bellow!!

"I am the hope of the universe. I am the answer to all living things that cry out for peace. I am protector of the innocent. I am the light in the darkness. I am truth. Ally to good! Nightmare to you!" - Goku